Marcel Gagne's blog

Linux Magazine, the UK version, is running a review of "Moving to Linux : Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye!", second edition, in their April 2006 issue. You can get the magazine at your favorite retailer now . . . but you don't need to buy the magazine to read the review since they are making it available online in PDF format. Thank you, Linux Magazine! My favorite quote is "Simply put, this is the perfect book for non-geeks making or even thinking about making the move to Linux." Perfect! Wow!

I'm a couple of days late getting this information out so my apologies. A new article of mine is now available on the UnixReview.com Website.

This one is part of my Linux Game of the Month series and it is unusual in a few interesting ways. It is not complex, certainly not fast paced, and requires no high-end graphics card to operate. It is aimed at a very young audience, a group that still appreciates wooden shape-matching puzzles and stacking blocks. It's good, simple, educational fun for the younger set and it's called Childsplay.

Parents of kids 2 to 7 years of age will find this one particularly interesting.

Many of the people on this list (your host included) like to try out different Linux distributions. It's not enough that the one we are using works, we still want to see what the other ones look like. If you're mostly curious about the look and feel, it turns out that there's a Website where you can view screen capture video clips of tons of default Linux desktop installations.

Those of you who also subscribe to the WFTL-LUG list will have already seen part of this but I wanted to make sure it made it into my blog as well. I wanted to touch on this whole Bittorrent story because of an experience I've had. It's also part of a personal rant I've had lately about businesses and government treating us like criminals without just cause. Yeah, there's some background ranting that needs to be done to clear up how my ire was raised this far (and perhaps my next blog post should be the beginning of this), but I'm going to stick to the Bittorrent story for now.

The fine people over at XYZ computing are running an interview with yours truly. Those of you who visit regularly may have heard me say (or read me saying) some of these things before, but there were certainly some interesting questions. Click right here to read the whole interview. I think I might have gotten a little out of control, however, when they asked me what Linux could learn from Windows XP.

Hey out there! You are working too hard! If that sounds like you, then read on . UnixReview has just published the latest of my "Marcel's Linux App of the Month". This month's app is about a great little program designed to make sure you take breaks from time to time as your workday progresses. If you (or someone you know) is prone to backache, sore necks, headaches, or carpal tunnel syndrome as you toil at your keyboard, then you need to read about Workrave at the UnixReview.com Website.

Tomorrow night (Tuesday, the 17th), I'll be appearing live on the Computer America radio show and you can too! Details in the next paragraph . . . the show is Tuesday night, at 10:00 PM Eastern time (7:00 PM Pacific). The topic of Tuesday's show is, wait for it . . . security in the Linux world. It should be a lot of fun. Of course, it might get ugly too. Security does tend to be a touchy subject for some people though I can't understand why [ insert appropriate smiley here ].

Yes, this is just a bit of administrivia, but I think you are all going to like it. As those of you who were there for Tuesday night's chat already know, I am in the process of moving all of the domains and service that I use off site. Currently, the salmar.com, marcelgagne.com, and a few other domains that I support are all being served up from my home office. This has worked out well and it has given me physical access to my server for these past few years, access that has been invaluable in creating the various Websites, the Web-based fora (or forums) on www.marcelgagne.com (and the many Linux articles there), the IRC chat server, the WFTL-LUG and WFTL-ANNOUNCE mailing lists, and so on.

How about a nice game of chess? For some, that question will bring back memories of the 1983 movie, WarGames, starring a young Matthew Broderick and the amazing Dabney Coleman. Somehow, it seems that chess games and movies just go together. Don't believe me? Let me give you a few examples.

Arthur C. Clarke, the author of "2001", once stated that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," a statement that brings to mind the fantastic game of Wizard chess from the first Harry Potter movie.

Now, if you haven't played a decent game of computer chess lately, it's time to check out this month's Linux game over at UnixReview.com. In the article, I'll tell you about eboard, a great chess-playing program that lets you play against your own system, play against another player remotely, or join an online game using the FICS protocol (Free Internet Chess Server). You can read all about it at UnixReview.com